Fort Donelson and Shiloh 55

trip-hammer. We shall see him growing in fameand in achievement until at Nashville , in the con-cluding period of the war, he annihilates a greatConfederate army on the field of battle. His firstvictory was similar in completeness, though smallin scale. On the 19th of January, 1862, in ashort, sharp fight near Mill Spring, in Battle of M;llwhich Zollicoffer was killed, Thomas Spring,destroyed the Confederate force and cleared allthat part of Kentucky at a single blow. By thisvictory the Federals gained Cumberland Gap andwere brought within support of the loyal popula-tion of eastern Tennessee ; the eastern extremityof Johnston’s line was demolished, and his salientat Bowling Green was threatened on its flank.But still graver ill fortune was preparing for himin the other direction, where Grant was about totake the initiative.

As Colonel Preston Johnston tersely observes,in his biography of his father, “ there has beenmuch discussion as to who originated the move-ment up the Tennessee river. Grant made it,and it made Grant. It was obvious enough toall the leaders on both sides.” Sherman, Buell,and Grant agreed in urging it upon Halleck, butMcClellan, general-in-chief, thought it should bepostponed for a while, until after eastern Ten­ nessee should have been occupied. Halleck seems